Fee structure may be vastly different, and that is worth looking at. The biggest difference is the amount you are able to contribute to each. 401k limits are around 18500 dollars, while IRA is limited to 5500 dollars per year if you're under 50. It's 24,500 for 401K and 6500 for IRA if over 50. Your ability to contribute to a 401k also fades out if you have a high income level, over about 180-190K. Depends on your situation.
Yeah that's what I was thinking but to be honest at this point, 52, I'm not really interested in putting in up to 18,500 a year. I have enough over 4 IRA's that with regular expected growth I'm not overly concerned about that. I'm actually more interested in "cash". My plan was to take whatever they matched and put that in, and the rest just save in CD's, or in my etrade brokerage account and buy stocks with it. I start Monday but I read today that they don't actually have matching yet. So I'm thinking I might just put my savings into cash and at the end of the year figure out what's better tax wise, putting the 6500 in to lower my taxable income, or just keeping the 6500 in cash. One of the great things is you don't have to make IRA (or 401K I think) contributions in the taxable year. that is you can make an IRA contribution in 2019, that goes to your 2018 taxes. In turbotax you can play with it, if I put X in what happens to my taxes.
I might just play around with the numbers and come up with some midpoint where it helps my taxes and leaves me enough money in cash too.
I've never had a job before that didn't do matching on 401k, so I always contribute at least up to what they match so you get the free money, so not having matching is a new one for me. Since I haven't been working this year, even with the tax overhaul this year I think I'll still get a refund this year, but next year I might not so this exercise will be more valuable next year.